A general slice of life from a 40 soon to be 50 something husband, father, mountain biker,... Whatever I am into, I am REALLY into. Life is always better with gear. This blog follows my interests to a high level of mumbo jumbo detail

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Doping mtb pro

Heard that he just up and retired and is off to a new life. What? No protests of innocence, no book deals ala Tricky Ricky, then return to the spotlight to become the darling of French cycling. Even I sort of liked the guy, everyone deserves a second chance...

But the climate in North American mountain biking at the pro level seems much less tolerant of doping as compared to the Euro Pro scene. Way down at the below ground level where I am in the mountain bike racing food chain it's viewed with disdain, as has also been voiced on several other mtb blogs at the grass roots level.

What I am wondering just from curiosity is how a company like Haro handles this? Trek had to deal with Roland and his asthma medication/paper work snafu, but that seems to pale in comparison to the PR nightmare that this is going to create for them.

No news at their web page yet. They really ought to get a clue that a ton of us have computers and read the latest news and know about it and are talking about it. Why not come out and let us know their position on it. Or maybe they are going to the Kryponite school of Internet PR.

I remember several months ago when I was researching fulls suspension frames and they had an interview with Sheppard on their sight where he talked about begging to use the new prototype frame for his race season. And I was waiting for it to come out. That is good marketing IMHO. Pro talks about how good stuff is. Gullible consumer who likes to believe that riding what said pro rides will make him ride like said pro. Said pro gets busted for drugs. Gullible consumer looks for different company.

Another spin, is said company comes out and apologizes and says they are looking for new clean cut MWC, FTJ, NGT racer to sponsor. Who will of course rave about their new full suspension bike and all will be well.